A review, a snake, and The RUC

I’m putting my latest update below my thankyou to Elisa (Lost Inside the Covers) just in case you didn’t want to be confronted with the image of a snake when you opened my post.

Hey, no need to thank me!

Elisa has been kind enough to review my latest novel The Eleventh Question so if you’re interested in reading reviews and want to know if she loved, hated, or was indifferent to the book, please feel free to take a look…

Update on the Old Farmhouse

I’ve almost recovered from my road trip and there’s a lot to do out at the farm. I was pulling out the bedroom ceiling yesterday only to be greeted by an intruder who was happily feeding on the rats that had moved in when we moved out. He wasn’t too happy with me for disturbing his dinner. He is Boiga irregularis (and I thought I was going to be irregular when I spotted him). I didn’t have time to grab the camera (as I took off screaming doing a silent rain-dance from the room), but I‘ve put a picture of his daddy (below) from Wikipedia.

Hey, buddy – can’t you see I’m trying eat?!!!

Because I don’t like killing things (and he’s not a poisonous snake), I left him there to digest his meal. The rat’s nest has been completely cleared out so (hopefully) he’ll find another vacant homestead to reside in before I walk back inside for the last time…

…due to the Big Change of Plans

The farmhouse is now completely stripped bare and unfortunately this has revealed some structural damage from the last cyclone. We mentioned this to a friend of ours who told another friend and so on and so forth and before we knew it – we were offered another farmhouse to put in its place.

So the skeleton of the old farmhouse is coming down (and will receive a fitting burial) *insert tears here* and a beautiful Queenslander that was once a wartime homestead converted to a Rugby Union Club will be moved into its place. From this day forth our home will be known as The RUC (Rugby Union Club). Hubby is happy because it has a bar, a Foosball table and a cool-room for the beers.

So there you have it. Once the RUC has been moved onto the land (with a fresh lick of paint and new roof) I’ll post more pics of it.

A lot of equipment is needed to move this beauty. It should be on its way to the farm in the next few weeks. If I can get pics of them carrying it on the truck I’ll post them here.

I’ve definitely got Cayo in mind when I think of that veranda. I’ve even got one of those lovely cane swinging chairs and I know exactly where I’m going to put it! Relaxation and writing – here I come 😉

Wow Diane, really big changes indeed! Very interesting, moving a structure that large presumably several miles. There was a three bedroom home moved several miles to near here three years back. I hope the move goes well for you, and snake free!

There should be no snakes in the new place (they have to take off the roof to move it) so it’ll be a fresh new start for it. They need to move it about 20kms – so that’s not too far. I think they do it at about 4am when there’s very few cars on the road. Should be really interesting, John! 😀

GREAT review on your book – that should make you happy!! And the story of the farmhouse and the new Club House is almost too much to digest in one sitting…add the snake and it becomes a reason to take to my bed with the vapors tonight. Geez. Your head must be spinning! 🙂

LOL – my head is spinning, Sheila! I love getting a great review and Elisa is an excellent reviewer who pulls no punches 😉

The house will be a huge move, but I’m sure it’s in the hands of very capable people (and if not, I’ll get pics).

The snake was a surprise I didn’t really need yesterday (because of it’s colour (copper/brown) I thought it may be deadly, but I had someone who knows snakes better than I do take a look and they put my mind at ease). 😀

Great book review. The snake would have sent me screaming, too, and I tip my hat to you for moving the RUC. What a HUGE undertaking. I can’t wait to see pics of the move. Hopefully you can get some of the house up on the bed of the truck. I think it’s so cool they can move houses. I watched a house get moved from land a few miles north of here. It then traveled the inter-coastal waterway before being transferred to another truck and moved to it’s final destination. Fascinating.

I’d love to get some pics, but they start at 4 am. Hopefully it will still be on the truck at sunrise. Apparently it’s an amazing thing to watch (and I’ll be up early to see it!) They’re only moving it about 20 kms – so not as far as the one near your place (and across water – WOW!)

Good gracious, and he still has his skin on! The RUC looks really interesting. You’ll certainly have quite a unique home when it’s all spruced up. 🙂 I’ll have a look at Elisa’s review and come back to you. Must get to bed now, as I have an early Skype call to my mom in South Africa in the morning. 🙂

I LOVE the RUC…and the whole story behind it. Who gets to do that…really move a whole house? Oh, right my blogging sister Dianne! So excited for you and can’t wait to see the evolution of it’s transformation. Just no more pictures of snakes, poisonous, or not! 🙂 Happy New Year to you! 🙂

I thought I’d warn you about the snake so it didn’t take you by surprise, Bonnie! Promise no more snake pics (until I see the next one) 😉

The house move is nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time. I just want it to be there NOW so I can see what it looks like on my block (and before the house relocators change their minds or get a better offer – or something!)

I’d take snakes over rats any day, and not just because I like snakes. I have an absolute horror of rodents. (Although I too probably would have had the same quasi-irregular reaction initially.) 🙂

I like the look of your new homestead. It instantly conjured a vision of you cooking up meals in a canteen-style diner. I have no idea if that actually happens in a Rugby Union Club, but that’s where my mind took me. 🙂 I’m excited for more pictures when it’s all set up.

The Eleventh Question is one of the 12 books I’ve resolved to read this year. For that reason, I didn’t read the book review, as I don’t want to go into the book with any expectations. I only read reviews to help me decide whether I actually want to read a given book. Once the decision is made, I won’t read reviews again until after I’ve finished the book to see what other people thought of it.

I have an abhorrence for rodents as well, Janna – so the snake was actually doing me a favor! He just gave me a bit of a scare because I thought he was going to fall on my head 😯

The RUC is lovely inside – it’s all wood walls, floors and 15 ft ceilings with big fans – beautiful. It has a kitchen and an office (which will become a bedroom) and the cold-room (that will also become a bedroom when we pull out the ‘safe-like’ interior) 😉 It has a ‘women’s loo’ upstairs which is rather large (because it had three loos in it) and a really old sign at the top of the stairs saying “men’s toilet downstairs” with a painted hand and a finger pointing downward. It’s a great sign!

Five stars!! Congrats, and good luck with the new house. The home I grew up in was moved from another farm to ours and served us well for many years. I like the idea of houses on the move, at least for a time. I’m glad mine is currently standing still.

Wonderful review, Dianne! … I just love reading about your life; there is always so much excitement. I love the snake rain dance. I can sooo relate. The RUC is such an exciting turn of events, and how cool that your house has a name!

we one time came home and found a snake all curled up in front of our air conditioner six inches from the front door. Let me tell you there were more than one of us doing a “rain dance” out the front door . . . . 🙂 thank you for following me!

How the hell are you going to move that baby? Great post and yes as everyone has commented arms flailing in the air with your silent rain dance – priceless! 🙂 Good luck with it – better you then me gunga din! x

It’s a lovely historical place. I’ll keep it as close to ‘classic’ as I can. It’s all tongue and groove inside and the walls are already painted, but I’ll give it a touch-up (that will be a big job because it’s got 15ft ceilings). It’s got 6 french doors leading onto the veranda and I’m going to put new glass in those. The floors are wide hoop-pine so they’ll be cut and polished. A revamped kitchen and bathroom are in order – but this is a lot less than I would have to do on the old farmhouse to completely rebuilt it.

It was a cute fella – and if they eat rats that’s a big bonus (I hate rats). I took off because I thought it was going to fall on my head – LOL! 😯

The old farmhouse has had it’s day. I think if we hadn’t moved out it may have survived because we would have been able to keep up on the jobs around the place (so I feel a bit guilty about that). But I’m so excited about the new place and can’t wait to get my hands on it! 😀

The house was going to be demolished to make way for a brand new club house. It costs money to demolish so they’d rather give it away and that saves them a fair bit of cash. I love old things and have a lot of antiques, so the house will be a perfect project for me.

I much prefer snakes to rats – so I kinda liked this little guy as well 😉

Well, I guess I should tell you I don’t like snakes, so I may have missed some of your post as I was fumbling to scroll away from it. The snake, that is … The Ruc should be fun though. Can it be made cyclone proof? Maybe a bunker would be useful for extreme weather. Anyway, at least the project should be faster now.

The RUC has been through every cyclone for the last 100 years and is still standing, so that gives me a lot of hope, Justin 😀 Having said that – I’m not keen on cyclones, so if one comes along we usually go to the main farmhouse next door which is all double brick. If the RUC survives the first few, I may think of bunking down there in the future. Many years ago I had a phobia of thunderstorms – then when I experienced my first cyclone I realised that I had nothing to worry about with a ‘normal’ storm and haven’t been frightened of them since!

Sorry about the snake – I didn’t put it at the top of the page because I didn’t want to give anyone a heart attack! 😀 Because I nearly had one when I saw it!

I’m glad you’ll be secure, didn’t want you to blow away. 🙂 Love double brick! I’ve lived in two of them and they’re so cool inside. Ah, yes cyclones. Never been in one, never want to either. Sorry about my comment on snakes. They sort of freak me out. When I opened your post on my ipad, it greeted me. 😦 I’ll have to work out a way to block things I don’t want to see. 🙂 My wife often reminds me of the time we drove over a snake–I lifted my legs up as we went over it. Stupid I know, but it was a reflex action, survival instinct. We didn’t mean to drive over it, just couldn’t avoid it in time … We prefer to move living things out of the way rather than kill them.

What a job! But what a blessing – instant new house – upgrades, yes but, not having to re-start from scratch. And I too had to keep scrolling away from that snake – thank you kindly for not having him as your ‘greeter’.

Too bad about the house structure – but now you get that other fantastic place – Wow!! I used to live in a part of the US where moving houses happened quite often. It was nothing to see a house on a truck being towed along a busy highway! Looking forward to pictures! And snakes are fine by me – except for the poisonous ones, that is! 🙂

I have this feeling that it was ‘meant to be’, Ruth 😉 The RUC is such a beautiful building with so much potential and we were very lucky to get it. As I said, a friend mentioned to a friend and then it was ours. So many other people have put their hands up for it since then, but our timing was perfect 😀

I’ve seen houses on trucks before, but they weren’t mine – now I’m nervous! I really hope it all goes well.

Snakes don’t particularly bother me – I hate rats and the snakes do a good job of keeping the population down. It’s just that I was worried this one would fall on my head! LOL 😉

I’m also happy you’re getting a “new” house. I think the farm house was dismal–at least this way you’ll have a roof over your head and walls to keep out the wind. . . and hopefully the rats and the snakes that feed on them!

THANK YOU for not putting the snake image up front. I would of been terrified! LOL. You are a brave lady to have simply run away. I would of ran and ran and never went back lol. Luckily I’m a NYC gal so I haven’t had to worry about snake encounters ( knocks on wood cause it would be just my like the one loose snake in NYC would make it into my house lol).

Thank you, Suzan! The RUC ha a history and I’ll be looking into that as well. They need to remove the roof, so I’m sure any ‘critters’ living there will be gone by the time it gets put on the farm. That doesn’t mean some won’t move in further down the track – but that just means more tales and photo opportunities!

What an incredible life you live, Dianne. First, you get a stellar book review that compares your book to the Alchemist. Great comparison. Next, you battle snakes in real life. Then you get to live in the RUC with a bar and foosball table. Truth is stranger than fiction, but it would be hard to decide which is better, your reality or your fiction. haha

I was astounded and humbled when Elisa compared The Eleventh Question to The Alchemist – I absolutely love that book!

Things seem to happen for a reason and I’m a great believer in fate. The timing of us mentioning the old farmhouse and it’s woes was perfect because we would never have been offered the RUC had we not said anything. I’ve always believed the universe conspires and rules our lives – what we send out is what we get back. I see Bloggers for Peace is really taking off and this brings me a lot of joy! 😀

Lot of laughs with this post, thanks for that – always nice to start a week with some fresh laughter and amusement 🙂
This ability to physically move a house is something I think I envy a little because the solid foundation, brick-laid houses we make here cannot be moved – if it’s done it’s torn down and a new one has to be made in it’s place.
And I’m sure it wasn’t easy saying goodbye to the place you were looking forward to, but better finding out about the damage now than in some other, less pleasant way, no?
Cheers and all the best – looking forward to any moving pictures you may get 😉

Oh dear. That’s one scary snake! I don’t think I would’ve dared go back into the room… no, the house ever again. That’s one reason I’m not fit to live on farms/in the countryside, pests and such creatures really scare me!
Good luck with the move! This is the first time I’ve heard of a house being moved elsewhere, haha.

They move houses quite a lot here, Zen. I guess it’s because people build new ones but the old ones are very sound and historically significant. To tell you how excited I am would be an understatement. I wish you were here to see the move – it should be awesome! 😀 (promise I’d keep the snakes away from you)

So glad to hear you found another farmhouse so easily… I noticed that you are a little tearful about saying goodbye to the old one…just an idea…grab some of the old wood and make something out of it… IE, picture frame, stool, table… That way you will always have a bit of it with you. Here’s to the new house!!!

I’m sorry the renovation didn’t work out, but it’s amazing that you were offered another house to move onto the property! I just hope it doesn’t come with any unwanted residents like snakes and rats. 🙂

Wow, the RUC is a bit of a change of plans, but what great timing! It looks pretty big – I’ve seen prefabs move on the motorways here but nothing that looks the size of that place!
I have never had a snake in my house; I’m quite happy about that, really… 😉

Hi Dianne, I’m going to hold off reading the review until I read the book. I’ll write a review, too, and as I do that I’ll copy, ops I meant read, Elisa’s review. I am anxious to read more of your house moving adventure. That is a huge house to move – two story!!! Wow!! I’m so happy for you. I’d be happy to get rid of the snake, too!!!! Ours are poisonous here, but in 12 years I’ve seen one dead little one, and saw that the cats cornered one live one. So I don’t worry as much as I used to. Love this post!!! 🙂

Thanks, Marsha! You’re wonderful doing reviews for me – I don’t know where you find the time – but I’m really looking forward to it 😀

The RUC is two story – but they don’t take the bottom bit because it’s besa block and they just knock that down and take it away. It’ll still be high off the ground, but there will be nothing underneath (to start with) and we can build that in if we want in the future.

I’m so glad you love this post – I’m so excited I’m jumping out of my skin!!!

I’m living at my friend, Joey’s place in the town. He offered the house to me because he went to live at the farm (next door to our farm) when his dad died so he could look after his mum. It’s a beautiful little house so I’m very comfortable 😉

I’m hoping the RUC will be moved within the next two weeks 😀 “Hoping” is the critical word here….

It’s a tough decision, but I think I’d rather have snakes around than rats (as long as the snakes aren’t poisonous). I’m glad you didn’t have one of those accidents from the previous post while ripping that ceiling down!

What an amazingly eventful life you lead! First of all, you live in Australia which in and of itself qualifies you to be on par with Indiana Jones. You drive through the outback. Come home to face snakes! And then end up getting a new house that used to be The Rugby Union Club all the while writing fabulous novels. You are my hero Diane!! That’s all there is to it!! 😀

I’m so glad you put up this post. I tuned into your blog kind of late in the story and I wasn’t getting the gist of what you are doing out there.

Now that I know what the RUC is I am so eager to see pix of the move. We have a TV program here that my Son-in-Law introduced me to about “home movers” — professionals who do just what you are having done. It’s always so interesting even though they pack the TV program with all manner of unnecessary angst and drama (after all — TV is all about entertainment, not news).

Good on you.

While I’m on the subject…. have you said what part of OZ you are relocating to. Not mailing address, but general environs? I spent a month there some years ago and would like to appreciate something of the geography and setting in my brain if possible.

We are in Cairns. Very warm, tropical climate 😉 The house we are moving is classic Queenslander (built sometime between 1870 and 1918) and I’m going to have to do some digging to find out more about it’s history. I’ve never seen a home-moving show, but I’m sure we have something like that on one of the tv channels here. I’m going to try and get pictures of the move and re-location (am I’m really hoping it happens within the next week) 😀

A friend of our who lives on another farm had it done several years ago and they should have filmed that. The truck carrying the house dropped into the creek because their bridge collapsed and then they had to get it out and stumped in the ground before a cyclone hit. Now that was a drama! I hope we don’t experience anything similar to that!